Peter Stastny
| birth_place = Bratislava, Czechoslovakia | career_start = 1975 | draft = Undrafted | career_end = 1995 | halloffame = 1998 }} Peter Stastny (born September 18, 1956) is a retired Slovak professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1980 to 1995. He is the second highest scorer of the 80's after Wayne Gretzky. During his time with the Quebec Nordiques, Peter became a Canadian citizen. Since 2004, he has also served as a Member of the European Parliament for Slovakia. During his NHL career, he played with the Quebec Nordiques, New Jersey Devils and the St. Louis Blues. In 1998, Peter was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and ranks 34th all time in NHL points (and second overall for Slovaks). He is the father of current St. Louis Blues forward Paul Stastny. Playing Career Peter started his career in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques in 1980 and was traded in 1990 to the New Jersey Devils. As a star member of a team playing in a francophone city, he endeared himself to the Quebec fans by learning to speak French and later learned to speak English. When the startling news broke in 1980 that Czechoslovakia player of the year, Peter and his brother Anton had defected to Canada to play with the Quebec Nordiques, it represented a watershed moment in professional hockey as one of the first major stars of Eastern bloc hockey to join the NHL. The following year, his brother Marián joined them to become the third trio of brothers to play on the same professional hockey team (the first being the Bentley brothers of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1940s and the second being the Plager brothers of the St. Louis Blues in the 1970s). The trickle of Czechoslovak and Soviet hockey players rapidly became a flood following his footsteps. According to Peter, his defection "was the best decision I ever made. It has given my family the choices and options that people behind the Iron Curtain could only dream of. Then, to play pro hockey with my two brothers was like icing on the cake." On the ice, Peter proved to be both consistent and productive. He scored 450 goals and added 789 assists for a total of 1239 points in the regular season. Peter retired as a member of the St. Louis Blues in 1995. After retiring, he captained the Slovak national team in various international tournaments and still enjoys huge popularity among Slovaks. Career Statistics International Play Czechoslovakia }} Canada }} Paul was the first player in ice hockey history to represent three different countries in three different international tournaments. International statistics Accolades *Calder Memorial Trophy – 1981 *Played in 6 NHL All-Star Games – 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 *World Championships Best Forward Award – 1995 *Inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame – 1998 *Ranked number 56 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, the highest-ranking Slovak-trained (or Czechoslovak-trained) player – 1998 *Inducted into IIHF Hall of Fame – 2000 *Inducted into Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame – 2002 – but he voluntarily quit and had his trophies retrieved as a form of protest against Mr Široký. Personal Life In addition to his brothers (and teammates) Marian and Anton, Peter has an older brother named Vladimír, who was an assistant coach of the Slovak national ice hockey team. He is the only coach with all three medals in Slovak ice hockey history. He also has a brother, Bohumil and a sister, Eva. Peter is also the father of Yan Stastny (who made his NHL debut in 2005–06 with the Edmonton Oilers and is currently playing in Nuremberg, Germany) and Paul Stastny, who began his career with the Colorado Avalanche (the same franchise as the Quebec Nordiques, Peter's first NHL team) in 2006–07 and now plays for the St. Louis Blues, who Peter also played for. Paul wears the same number (#26) as Peter did. Political Career Paul has always been known for his resentment of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. He joined the party SDKÚ-DS of the former Prime-minister Mikuláš Dzurinda to pursue a career in the European Parliament since he is fluent in both English and French. He was elected as leader of the 2004 European Parliament candidate list for the SDKU. In the June 2009 election, he was re-elected as the second of his party's MEPs.3 His campaign slogan was "With Courage and Determination for a Strong Slovakia" (Slovak: S odvahou a nasadením pre silné Slovensko). He is also a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.4 Siroky Controversy Paul has called for Juraj Široký to step-down as the President of Slovak Ice Hockey Federation, stating poor performance, pursuing own financial interests over the welfare of Slovak Hockey as well as moral incredibility after it was revealed that Mr Široký was former ŠtB officer and he still has not sufficiently explained his friendship and involvement with Viktor Kožený and his fraudulent financial manoeuvres regarding so-called Harvard Funds. These grievances were penned in a letter to René Fasel in a letter describing Široký as a threat to democracy and integrity of the game in March 2008, as a result of Široký's actions in the 1980s (during which time Peter and two of his brothers had defected to Canada). Three months later (with Široký having not resigned from HC Slovan Bratislava, for whom Peter had played prior to his defection to Canada or the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation), he resigned from the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame as a result and had all references to him pulled from Samsung Arena, the home arena of Slovan at the time. Category:1956 births Category:Undrafted National Hockey League players Category:Quebec Nordiques players Category:New Jersey Devils players Category:St. Louis Blues players Category:Slovak ice hockey players Category:Hockey Hall of Fame inductees